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Partisan zeal infects foreign policy

It now seems official: The same brand of low partisanship that guides Stephen Harper's domestic political agenda is polluting Canada's foreign policy.

Scott Reid

By Scott Reid

Wed., May 28, 2008

It now seems official: The same brand of low partisanship that guides Stephen Harper's domestic political agenda is polluting Canada's foreign policy.

Forget the fumbling example of Maxime Bernier. And spare us the promises of an investigation into the details of his departure. There is now reason to believe the Harper PMO is so seized with partisan zeal it is prepared to exploit the ranks of our foreign service to wage battle abroad against those it sees as its ideological opponents – including the man who might well become the next president of the United States.

That ought to do wonders for bilateral relations should the Republicans lose the White House this fall.

Just as distressing, new revelations from the Star's James Travers suggest a recent Privy Council Office (PCO) report into the so-called NAFTA-gate controversy obscured and, possibly omitted hints of such partisan abuse.

According to multiple and informed sources speaking to the Star, a foreign affairs dispatch that wrongly characterized private communications with an adviser to presidential candidate Barack Obama found its way into the hands of Frank Sensenbrenner, the son of a Republican Congressman with established ties to the Harper PMO. It next popped up in the American media, generating days of damage to the Obama campaign.

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This unleashes a stampede of uncomfortable but important questions.

Was PCO aware that Frank Sensenbrenner received the foreign affairs dispatch?

If not, why not – given that a columnist was able to uncover this fact after three days of investigative effort?

If PCO did know of Sensenbrenner's involvement, why did the public report fail to mention his name?

Did PCO instruct its investigators to ask Sensenbrenner from whom he received the diplomatic note? If not, why not?

And did Sensenbrenner leak the dispatch to The Associated Press – either with or without the knowledge of those from whom he received it?

It is, to say the least, extremely discomforting to imagine that PCO would have been aware of these facts, considered these questions and opted to remain silent and/or abandon further inquiry of the Sensenbrenner connection.

The investigation was overseen by Kevin Lynch, the federal government's most senior public official. I worked closely with Lynch for many years. He is a person of the highest professional integrity who correctly commands a reputation beyond any partisan reproach.

Which makes it all the more important that these questions be addressed immediately – and decisively.

Last May, the government didn't hesitate to involve the Mounties when a copy of its Green Plan was leaked. The bureaucrat responsible was located and fired. Presumably, interference in the U.S. presidential election is deemed a less serious matter. How else to explain the government's willingness to tolerate an inconclusive investigation into the identity of those leaking diplomatic notes to foreign partisans?

Not to be lost in all of this is the unfair shadow this could cast over our respected foreign service. And the practical consequences it could imply for our ability to communicate frankly with our international partners.

Who could fault a foreign power – including one as fundamental to our strategic interest as the United States – for doubting whether the integrity of diplomatic confidences can be assured? Without recourse, what reason has Canada given others to believe their candid opinions won't be bicycled to partisan domestic opponents?

The uneasy summary is this: If it is true that a Canadian diplomatic note found its way into the hands of a U.S.-based Republican operative after it was shared with the PMO and before it was leaked to The Associated Press – and if PCO found this fact neither worthy of disclosure nor greater investigation, a scandal has been born.

Frankly, let's hope it is not true. But to protect the integrity of our image abroad and of our public service at home, these reports must be pursued and concluded without the slightest hanging thread.

Scott Reid served as former prime minister Paul Martin's director of communications.

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